👉 Background: Disney+ is Disney's own streaming services which was launched in 2019. It grew rapidly, picking up over 73 million subscribers in the first year. It now has over 161 million subscribers globally.

👉 What happened: Now, Disney has done a massive unfollow spree of its own exclusive content. They've pulled back dozens of shows and films from Disney+ and Hulu. The list has titles like Willow, Artemis Fowl, and Club Mickey Mouse.

👉 What else: Disney's streaming platform lost 4 million subscribers in the first three months of 2023 - which is 2% of their entire subscription base. But, they're hoping this content cleanse will help them cut back on some of their costs, especially their licensing costs.

What's the key learning?

💡No hard feelings, just business dealings. No matter where streaming services receive their content from, they need to pay chunky licensing fees.  It's like how Netflix paid Sony a licensing fee of over $500 million for a five-year deal to stream Seinfeld.

💡When streaming services purchase content, they pay a licensing fee. Netflix paid Sony a licensing fee of over $500 million for a five-year deal to stream Seinfeld.

💡 But, they also need to pay a licensing fee to stream their own content. Warner Bros Discovery paid Warner Bros TV $425 million to stream Friends.

By removing content that's been made exclusively for streaming, Disney+ and other streaming services can immediately 'cut back' on some of their expenses and make their P&L look prettier.

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